Things Said in Foxholes
by AshlynnCoy
Summary: Set not long after ANH: Han and Leia pinned down in a foxhole and awaiting air cover. Han asks Leia questions to keep her awake and alive and winds up learning a lot about her. Han x Leia. Movie canon only. Import from Tumblr.


This was never supposed to have devolved into trench warfare—yet somehow there they were. Han and Leia had been just moments too late to get back to the rebel lines. The fighting on this recently-discovered Imperial backwater had been a heated back-and-forth for weeks that had settled into what was more-or-less a stalemate on the edge of the northern forest. It had been Leia's idea to use the ongoing battle as a diversion; she could get in and out of their tactical HQ behind their lines while the shooting was going. She'd been sure of it.

And she'd been right.

The problem had come when they'd needed to go the long way around on their way back to the rebel position. The timeline was tight, and the Alliance had strict orders to hold their fire for a time and then to let loose with everything they had. The letting loose had come moments too soon for Han and Leia's successful escape. They'd wound up hunkered down in a shell hole with heavy fire overhead from both sides. They'd long since run out of ammo; their only option was to sit tight and wait for an opening, hoping to be able to make a run for it while the shelling was paused.

Letting the Alliance know they were there hadn't done a whole lot of good. They'd been assured an air strike was incoming. And once the fighters were engaged, the ground forces would cease fire long enough for Han and Leia to get behind the fire line. That was the plan, anyway—but it had been hours, and air cover had yet to arrive. Several times ordinance from one side or the other had landed too close for comfort; one of them had taken out Han's commlink, so there was no calling in for an update.

There was a chance they weren't coming.

With no way to communicate, with no way to let their people know they were still alive and still pinned down, Han was worried the plans had changed and they'd be stuck there until stalemate took hold again.

But mostly, he was worried about Leia.

Two volleys after the one that had destroyed his commlink, an incendiary had landed too close, sending a piece of orange-hot shrapnel across Leia's neck and shoulder. It had left a gash and burn so ugly Han preferred not to look at it. The sun had gone down in the hour following, and the temperature had dropped at least ten degrees. There was moisture in the air, and although it might not qualify as rain on all planets, it was enough to soak their clothes clean through. It was cold, it was damp, she was wounded, and he was worried.

Han had been able to see by the light of the blasterfire overhead when Leia had stopped shivering. That was no good. What had looked at first like a standard case of fatigue and an ugly-but-minor wound was now looking dangerously like exposure and shock. And he'd be damned if he was going to let the princess freeze to death in a mudhole on a planet too insignificant to even have a name.

"Hey," he said, calling out across the silence as the fire died down, "We've gotta stay sharp, okay? Gotta stay awake. We need to be as alert as possible for when our chance comes. We're not gonna have a lot of time."

Leia nodded, but that was all the response she had the energy for.

"Talk to me, Leia," he said then, "let me hear your voice. Let me know you're still with me."

"What do you want me to talk about?" she asked. She was feeling too weak to argue—really too weak to talk at all. But she understood on some level that what he was doing was trying to save her life. She knew the signs of hypothermia as well as he did, and she knew it wasn't a good thing that she'd suddenly stopped feeling the cold.

"I don't know," Han said reflexively, but then he caught himself. Asking her to make decisions right now wasn't a good tack to take. But if he asked her questions, she'd answer them. He shrugged. He just had to keep her talking.

"Tell me about your parents," he said then. She had a lifetime to draw on there. "What were they like?" he asked, "Tell me about them."

Leia nodded again. She was huddled on her side, leaning against the side of the crater facing away from Han. She was determined not to die here today, but if she was about to, her mom and dad would be a nice final thought.

"My mother," Leia began, "she glowed."

"Is this a metaphor, or…"

"No. She really did. She had an accident climbing Appenza Peak when she was sixteen that required a full cardiovascular reconstruction. Her pulmonodes sometimes shone through her skin. When I was little I thought it was magic, but as I got older and understood what it really was, I realized it was even more incredible."

"What I find incredible is a planet that lets its queen climb mountains."

"It was required," Leia countered, "not the mountain specifically. But when an heir presumptive reaches the age of ascension, she's required to complete challenges of the mind, the heart, and the body— in order to prove her worthiness to take the throne. I did it, too. I climbed that same mountain when I was sixteen." She turned her head then just enough to see the reaction come across his face. His surprise did not disappoint.

"You did?" he asked, very obviously amazed.

"I did. And my mother came with me. I think she felt like she had something to prove after not making it up and down when it was her task."

"Wow," Han said, "that explains a lot."

"What?"

"You," he replied, "that dogged determination to see a plan through even when it's possibly detrimental to your personal health and safety. Apparently you come by that honestly," he observed, "it's an Organa family trait."

"I never thought about it that way," she replied, "but I probably do get that from my mother."

Han reached out and squeezed her elbow—pleased she hadn't made any attempt to deny her carelessness where her own well-being was concerned.

"It was a big deal for her to come with me," Leia said then, "she really wanted to try to conquer that mountain—all the while reminding me that reaching the summit is only the halfway point. Even though he accident wasn't her fault, she said at the time she was afraid she wouldn't be allowed her coronation."

"What?" Han asked. That sounded unbelievable. "There was a chance they wouldn't let her be queen because something happened climbing a mountain?"

"She thought there was a chance she'd be found wanting—that she'd somehow failed the challenge of the body. That's actually how my parents ended up engaged." Her eyes drifted shut and Han shook her gently. He had to keep her awake and responding.

"How they wound up engaged," he repeated. Leia nodded and took a deep breath.

"They'd been in love for years," she replied, "everyone just thought it was a teenage dalliance. I don't mean to belittle it, it's just that young love so seldom ends happily." Leia got a faraway look in her eyes then that made Han wonder if she was speaking from experience.

"Yeah, don't I know it," Han grumbled. He was intimately familiar with that particular heartache.

"But he told her he didn't care if she never became queen, that he wasn't with her for her title, and that he would marry her no matter what—as long as she survived."

"That's sweet. He sounds like a god guy."

"That was my dad. He was the warmest, most generous, most loving person I've ever known. When it turned out the consensus was that my mother's survival had been enough to prove her worthiness to rule, he was so happy for her. He'd just been elected to his first term in the Senate and he wrote the most beautiful love letters to her. He was there when she had her coronation a year later, and they were married a year after that."

"I bet he had a fit when you climbed that mountain."

"What?"

"I mean… I can't imagine. You were the age your mother was when the mountain almost killed her— and not only were you going up it, but she was too? I can't imagine he was a big fan of that decision." Leia scooted around to lean her back against the wall of the trench. She looked over at Han and shrugged.

"You know," she said, "I never thought about that. He was always so supportive of me. The only thing he ever tried to stop me from doing was joining the Alliance."

"That part I understand," he said. "Bein' out here is scary stuff. At least no one was shooting at you on that mountain."

As if on cue, another barrage from the Empire came overhead, lighting up their position and sending dirt and shrapnel raining down on them again. Han scooted closer to Leia, curling his body over hers until he was sure the worst of it was over.

"You don't have to keep doing that," she said. "If anything's going to kill me, it's going to kill us both. Your trying to shield me from heavy ordinance is just going to result in someone having to figure out which of our body parts belongs to whom."

"Wow, highness," he chuckled, sitting himself back down, closer this time, sidled up to her with his hand on hers, "that's the darkest thing I've ever heard you say."

"I didn't mean to ruin the levity."

"Then will you shut the hell up about dying and get back to telling me what the royal parents were like?"

"You're not really interested in that."

"The hell I'm not. You can learn a lot about a person from hearing about where they come from. And as long as we're stuck in a mudhole I figure we might as well get to know each other better."

Leia turned her hand over in his, squeezing his fingers when she found purchase on them.

"I'm tired, Han," she admitted. "How about you tell me about your parents for a while?"

"Cause I'm tryin' to keep you alive," he said, "not the other way around. Plus, I didn't have any parents, so it'd be over awful quick."

Leia squeezed his hand again.

"They'd have loved you," she told him.

"Your parents?" he asked.

"Mm-hmmm."

"You think? I'm not real good about the royal etiquette."

"That's the thing," she said back. "My mother… she was accustomed to the deference, but she always preferred the company of people who treated her as an equal. The first time she heard you giving me lip, she'd have invited you to dinner and insisted you sit beside her."

"And what about your dad? Can't imagine he'd approve of his daughter running around the galaxy with a spice smuggler."

"It's the running around he'd object to," she answered, "not you. He helped to found the Alliance," she told him, shifting further to face him more easily and trying her best to ignore the pain in her neck and shoulder. "He believed in what we're doing, but he wanted to keep me as far away from it as possible. He tried so hard… they both did… to keep me out of all this."

"Of course they wanted to keep you out of it," he agreed. "Who'd want this for someone they love?" Leia smiled back at him and let her eyes shut again.

"My father…" she began again, "he'd have loved you for this," she said. "For today. For not letting me sneak around behind enemy lines by myself. For waiting on Skorii-lei even though the mission timeline said you were supposed to take off without me. For running the Dragon Void even though you'd left to get your life back—I asked for your help and you came…." Her voice trailed off and her hand went slack in his. Han squeezed her fingers.

"Yeah, I did all that," he said. "And I flew you off the Death Star and I helped you steal a Star Destroyer and right this minute I'm gonna keep you talkin' and squeezin' your hand and tryin' to get you to wiggle your toes in your boots or whatever else I can do to keep you from slippin' away from me."

Leia shook her head, but didn't say anything more. Han sidled up closer to her, wrapping his arms around her from behind and leaning her slack body against him, careful not to aggravate the wounds on the left side of her back. He didn't' know how much body heat he had, nor if it would be any help at all, but it was the only thing he could think of to do.

"You don't have to hold me like that," she whispered after a moment. Han sighed. He tilted his head down and kissed the top of her head. She was covered in dirt and metallic particles, but she was still herself. Still Leia: always resisting, always denying the need or desire for anyone's assistance. He'd hold her as tight as he could just to get her to turn around and fight him if it meant keeping her alive.

A sound crept into Han's consciousness then. A whine and whirr that he'd know anywhere. It stirred hope in his belly and he couldn't help the smile that crossed his face. He squeezed Leia briefly and then moved his hands to take hold of her by the shoulders.

"You're right," he said, "I don't." Leia reached around behind herself to pat Han on his knee. "Look up," he said then. But Leia didn't move. "Sweetheart, I mean it," he insisted, "Look up."

Leia managed to tilt her head skyward just in time to see the _Millennium Falcon_ flying low overhead, coming in hot and laying down strafing fire in the direction of the Imperials. Behind the _Falcon_ came a full flight of X-wings and a heavy bomber, all of them taking the Imperial fire skyward.

"Chewie's here!" Leia exclaimed.

"You're damned right he is," Han replied, letting go of Leia and scrambling to his feet. She grabbed him by his hand just before he reached his full height, pulling him off balance and causing him to fall back onto his knees in the mud. "What's that about?" he demanded.

"Stay down!" she ordered him, coming slowly onto her feet and peering over the top of the trench. Whatever surge of adrenaline the arrival of their air support had given her had put the spark back into the princess. Her eyes were bright, and she was as aware and alert as she had been when they'd first leapt into this hole. "It's not safe yet. The last thing we need is for you to get your head blown off right as we're about to get out of here! If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not have to carry you back to the _Falcon_ in pieces!"

Han shook his head and couldn't stop himself from laughing. He crouched beside her, reaching out a muddy hand to clap her on the shoulder.

"You're really in rare form today, Princess," he said, "that's two references to death by dismemberment in the last ten minutes."

"What can I say?" she asked him, turning her head just enough to see the rebel line behind her slowing their fire, "there's something about freezing in the mud that overrides my royal sensibilities. You ready?" she asked then. Han nodded. "Then let's get out of here."


End file.
